Son jailed for hiding father’s remains

Investigators have tentatively identified the bones of a man found in a Port Orford trailer park as those of Charles Owen Starks - and they have arrested his son, Corey Theodore Starks, on charges of hiding the body.

Stark also faces possible federal charges of collecting his father's social security checks since his father death.

The elder Starks was born Feb. 25, 1939, and was originally from Rochester, Minn.

Port Orford Police were summoned to the Anchor Inn RV Park March 11 after the new owner, Craig Lundborg, was removing a trailer and cleaning up the 10-site park and found a human skull. Other bones were discovered in the immediate area.

The Curry County Major Crime Team had been attempting to locate the younger Starks to interview him about his father, who had lived at the RV park in 2009-2010.

Federal investigators found Corey Starks in Minnesota, where he confessed to burying his father under the trailer in Port Orford after his father died of natural causes on March 1, 2010.

They arrested him in Walker, Minn., April 8, for allegedly continuing to collect and spend his father's Social Security checks after his father's death. Hearings regarding those charges were tentatively scheduled for today (April 17).

Curry County then issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of abusing a corpse, a Class C felony.

Starks is to be extradited from Minnesota to face those charges.

The Major Crime Team is still investigating the cause of Charles Starks' death and will review that evidence with the DA's office before a decision is made on any further criminal charges against Cory Starks regarding the death of his father.

The Major Crime Team is continuing to gather medical records and DNA on the father to positively identify the remains.

Messages to Port Orford Police Chief Marvin Combs were not returned.

Curry County District Attorney Everett Dial declined to comment as the case is still under investigation.